


opening up

by sentichefuoripiove



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Early dating, F/M, Tumblr Prompt, mer and andrew have the derek talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 23:28:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19711693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sentichefuoripiove/pseuds/sentichefuoripiove
Summary: “What you really mean is, you wanna know who you should fight for my heart?” she asks him, and he knows she’s teasing but he can’t help but make a disapproving sound. “Mer…” he scolds her, and turns around to go join her in bed.Andrew's misguided jealousy turns into a much needed conversation.





	opening up

**Author's Note:**

> anon asked: _Would you consider something where merluca talk about Derek_

“You did not just ask me that” Meredith says, coming out of the bathroom in just a t-shirt, struggling to get the words out of a mouth full of toothpaste. She looks positively baffled.

“Well, can you blame me?” he shoots back, and he stares as she gives him a pointed look before disappearing again into the bathroom. He hears her spit out the toothpaste into the sink, the faucet running, and after a second she’s back into the bedroom.

“I can’t believe you just asked me if I ever dated Alex” she says again, and now that she’s got full use of her mouth again, he is relieved to find that she is not angry as he originally thought, if the smirk on her lips is any indication. 

They’re at his place, drove there together after a fairly long shift ended and she didn’t trust herself to drive all the way home on her own. They had been getting ready for bed, chatting mindlessly while getting out of their clothes, already comfortable enough in their dating status that it felt normal, domestic even.

He was telling her about his most recent patient, a newborn with an heart defect he was assisting Alex on. He was also joking about the kid’s mom, and the very obvious crush Helm had on her. Meredith had stayed silent for a moment, before launching into a story about Alex and an intern who had a baby and he almost slept with. The story was confusing and long-winded, and the only thing Andrew got out of it was _the way_ she talked about it. She sounded resentful and bitter, and he told her as much.

“Bitter? You bet your ass, that idiot almost missed his entire Boards to go and hold her hand” she explained, pulling her toothbrush out of the overnight bag she had started keeping at his place.

“You’re sure it was just that?” he had asked, already kicking himself internally for the direction he was taking it.

“What do you mean?” she had called out from the bathroom, her tone casual.

“I mean, huh, I guess I just wanted to know if-“ he stammered over his words, trying to find the best way to ask the question, knowing full well the can of worms it was bound to open, “I was just wondering if you and Alex were ever a thing, that’s all.”

That is what put them in the situation they are currently in: standing in his bedroom, both half-dressed for bed, Meredith with her toothbrush in her hand and eyebrows shot up in surprise, her _I can’t believe you just asked me if I ever dated Alex_ still hanging in the air.

“I mean, no one at the hospital seems to really know” he tries to backtrack. “Well, I guess Bailey would know, but I’m too scared to ask” he adds sheepishly, and she bursts into an open laugh that makes him smile too, albeit a little embarrassed.

“Andrew” she calls for him, extending a hand so he would step closer to her. He does. “Andrew. I did not date Alex, are you crazy? You would know if I did.”

“Ok, but… Can you at least acknowledge it is not so farfetched to think that?” he scoffs, and when he sees the questioning, disbelieving look on her face he lets out a defeated sigh. “I’m sorry, I know it’s stupid. I guess… I always wonder what I don’t know about you.”

Her stare softens, and she gives his wrist a quick squeeze before pulling back, making her way to the bed.

“What you really mean is, you wanna know who you should fight for my heart?” she asks him, and he knows she’s teasing but he can’t help but make a disapproving sound. “Mer…” he scolds her, and turns around to go join her in bed.

“I know, I know, sorry… Ok, ask away, I’ll tell you everything you wanna know” she offers, straightening her back against the headboard and looking down at him, sprawled on the other side of the bed.

“Seriously? Mer, it’s late, we don’t have to do this tonight if you’re tir-“

“Andrew, seriously. Tell me what you want to know” she repeats, bending down to kiss him quickly before resuming her place, sitting cross-legged against the headboard.

“Huh, ok then.” He is surprised at how quickly she caught onto what he actually meant, and at the fact she was immediately willing to go along with it. He clears his throat before asking the first question.

“So, you and Alex really never dated?”

“No, we never dated” she chuckles. “He was a complete asshole when we met, it took us a while before we could even be friends. And then I was with Derek and that was it, it’s not like I had many chances to date around. Except-“ she stops, and Andrew cranes his head to look at her.

“Except what?”

“Except I did actually date around. Funny, I almost forgot.” She seems to get lost in her own head for a minute, and he patiently waits for her to continue. “I did date someone else for a while. Finn, he was our dog’s vet. He was a very nice man and I kinda broke his heart. I can’t believe I forgot about him.”

Andrew takes in the new information. Apparently, her late husband was the kind of man that makes you forget every other guy you've ever been with. _Not intimidating at all._

“You said ‘our’ dog. You had a dog together, but you were…dating other people?” he asks, confused.

“We weren’t really together at that point. His wife had come back, and he left me for her for a while.” she tells him casually. His loud gasp, on the other hand, reads as something like _what the fuck??_

“He was already married?” he manages to ask, once he finds his voice again.

“Yup” she replies, popping the P.

“And had he told you about it when you started dating?”

“Nope”, with the same tone as before, just a little more bitter.

“So, then… What happened?”

“Eventually we got back together. It wasn’t easy, It took us a long time, and we both made some… stupid decisions, but it all worked out.” The light tone she had been maintaining until now quickly fades, and the last sentence carries a weight Andrew had not anticipated. Even without looking at her, he knows something is wrong. He sits up and manoeuvres himself so that he is also sitting cross-legged on the bed, facing her.

“You ok?”

She trains her eyes on him, shakes her shoulders as if to get rid of the burden of what she just told him, and smiles faintly, taking his hand. “Yeah, I’m ok.”

“We don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.”

“No, I- I think we should” she tells him, resolve in her voice. “I feel like I want you to know this. If you want to hear it, that is.”

“I always want to hear everything you have to say, Mer”, the sentence, meant to be sincere, turns out to be much sappier than he intended, but the way Meredith scrunches up her nose and the delighted giggles that escape her mouth make it all worth it anyway, Andrew thinks.

“Ok, well… Can I still ask something?” he tries.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“What was he like?” he asks, and he can see her head whip up and her eyes meeting his. He knows this may very well be one of the pivotal moments in their relationship, that the way he reacts to what she’s about to say will determine whether this thing between them is going to work out or not. He holds her stare, tries to silently communicate that _it’s ok, whatever you say I’ll be ok with it_ , and she must understand somehow, because she lets her shoulders sag a bit before taking a big breath in, and she starts to talk.

She talks for hours, about how they met, and how he chased her in the beginning. How hurt she felt when he left her and her resolve when she decided to get him back. She talks of his brilliance, of how unbelievable it was to work under him, telling him stuff from the behind the scenes of surgeries he knows of already, had studied in med school because they were just _that legendary._

She tells him about how incredibly complicated he was, how, especially in her residency, their relationship would often be tested, and now he understands why she was so reluctant to give their own relationship a try. She tells him that yes, he was a complicated man, but that he also was a wonderful husband and father, and he watches her laugh as she recalls some of the absurd, sweet things he did for Zola when she was just a tiny baby. He listens, mostly, doesn’t interrupt her, asks only to prompt her to continue with her story. 

When they finally turn off the lights, he lays in his bed on his back, Meredith’s flush along his side, unable to fall asleep just yet. He goes over everything she just told him, all the details about her life that made him realise how little he knows about the woman he is seriously, probably, falling for. He is surprised of himself when he realises that, despite what he thought he would feel, jealousy for Derek is the last thing on the list. Instead, he has all these questions filed away in his head, of all the weird and insane stuff that has happened to her, that she just touched on as context to her and Derek’s story, but that he is just itching to know more about. Shootings? Bombs? _…Really?_

“I can hear the gears in your head turning”, her muffled voice startles him. He thought she was already asleep.

“I’m not thinking of anything” he says, turning on his side to spoon her, dropping a kiss on her shoulder.

“Yes you are, you are thinking of who is the best person you can go to to ask about my past” she tells him, still mumbling and half-asleep, and his eyes widen in the dark at how spot on she is.

“I still think Bailey would be my best bet, but I’m honestly too terrified to even try.”

“Or you could just go to Alex, if you think you can put your blinding jealousy aside” she jokes, and as he snorts and she giggles into his arms he thinks that if his one misguided, totally wrong assumption led him here, to one of the most perfect moments of the past six months, then he’s gonna try and be wrong more often.

And he’ll just ask Jackson for answers instead.

**Author's Note:**

> This took me a long time to get to, but I finally did it. Honestly i didn't know how to approach it, because let's just say I'm not Derek's biggest fan and I didn't want my opinion to bleed through into what Mer actually feels. I think I did ok, I really like how it turned out.
> 
> Also, I'm still certifiable merlex trash, and I had to stop myself because what was meant to be a funny opening was turning into a full-fledged fic about their relationship and the Derek stuff almost disappeared from it. I'm hopeless and I need help, lol
> 
> Hope you like it, leave a comment if you want!


End file.
